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Dimo was startled from his slumber by a sudden weight dropping onto his side. Instinctively, his hand went for the knives he kept under his pillow, but he stopped short just as his fingers curled around the hilts. The scent of roses – Maxim's stupid fancy soap, specifically – wafted into his nose, and he immediately relaxed, sighing as he shifted, rolling onto his back and slinging an arm around the boy's shoulders as Maxim shifted with him, curling up against his side with his face pressed into his chest.
“Don' hyu know iz dangerous to vake a schleepink Jaeger?” he chided, scowling at the bowed crown of Maxim's head.
“Is not,” the boy replied, his tone dismissive, if not muffled by Dimo's chest. “I'm perfectly fine, see?”
“Yah, cuz hyu stink,” Dimo snorted, rolling his eyes though he meant it. If Maxim didn't use such a distinct smelling soap, the Jaeger could have killed him out of reflex. It was probably the only time smelling like a girl saved a life.
“I don't stink, I smell beautiful,” he huffed, hunching his shoulders up more, fingers curling in Dimo's chest hair. “YOU stink, though. When is the last time you took a bath?”
Growling a bit, Dimo grumpily raised his hand, thumping Maxim upside the head in annoyance. He didn't have the patience for silly banter in the middle of the night. “Chust tell me vhat hyu vant zo Hy ken go beck to schleep,” he groused, maybe a bit more roughly than he needed to.
No immediate answer seemed forth-coming. For a long moment, Maxim simply lay there, head pillowed on the Jaeger's chest, quiet and unusually subdued. It was just a long enough time for Dimo to start regretting his gruffness, and he wondered if it was intentional, or if the boy really wasn't comfortable with answering.
Then he got a tiny little mumble he couldn't quite make out.
It seemed intentional or not, something was on the boy's mind.
“Gonna hafta schpeak op, sveethott,” he drawled, giving Maxim a little squeeze to show he wasn't being unkind.
Maxim made a disgruntled little noise, pressing his face more into Dimo, his fingers tickling as they curled into fists. Still, he didn't say anything particularly coherent, and the Jaeger wasn't going to let him get away with that.
“Hyu know, Hy em gonna chust t'row hyu out und go beck to schleep hiff hyu ken't chust schpit it out.”
“I had a nightmare!” Maxim suddenly shouted, his whole body going tense at the declaration. “I had a nightmare and I didn't want to be alone, okay? So just... just leave me alone.”
Well, that just brought up all kinds of questions, the least of which was why a sixteen year old boy, who otherwise refused to show any sign of weakness, was doing running to his room. “So vhy iz hyu-”
“Do you really think I'm going to walk all the way to Oggie's house, where he's going to be in bed. With his WIFE?” Maxim deadpanned, finally raising his head to give Dimo a dirty look. He had to laugh a little bit to himself. “Because that's really a long way to go, only to be thrown out by an angry lady with a rolling pin made out of stone, you know. You are not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination.”
Okay, that was a fair point. “But vhat's got hyu zo vurked op hyu gotta come runnin' for comfort?”
“Do I have to talk about it?” Maxim whined, his brow furrowing and lips turning down into a pout. Dimo shrugged in response, hands sliding up the boy's back to toy with his hair. He supposed he didn't need to know, he thought as he absently twirled his fingers through silky gold strands. The boy looked up at him, confusion on his face, and a smirk flickered across Dimo's face. He liked catching the unflappable blond off guard like that. Maxim pursed his lips and huffed in response, so Dimo rolled them over, pinning Maxim to the bed as the blond tensed up, letting out a mewl of protest, his hands pushing against the Jaeger's chest.
“Now, don' be like dot, sveethott,” he crooned, pressing his forehead against Maxim's with a roguish grin, grabbing the boy's hands and yanking them over his head. “Hiff hyu don' vanna tell me, hyu don' gotta, but hyu ain't stayin' here for free. Hyu gotta giff me ZUM reason to let hyu schleep in my bed. ”
“You have GOT to be kidding me!” Maxim yelped, staring at Dimo like he'd grown another head, one corner of his lip curled up in not sure if want.
Humming thoughtfully, Dimo let his eyes rake over the nubile form beneath him as Maxim squirmed uncomfortably, waggling his eyebrows rakishly. All the blond wore was a long shirt, but it wasn't long enough to reach his knees, leaving the smooth, milky expanse of his thighs exposed, and it rode up even more with every little thrash of his body. If his hands weren't occupied, it would have been so easy to give into the temptation run them along the soft skin, pushing the fabric slowly up, revealing more of that beautiful skin inch by inch. Of course, the blond was getting more and more agitated the more he stared, so maybe he wouldn't have to use his hands to get a little peek.
Just as Maxim let out a little snarl of “You're disgusting,” he jerked himself out of his thoughts, feeling a little confused and disgusted, himself. Just what did he think he'd find when he reached the point where the boy's met? Not a juicy little cunt, that was for sure.
Pushing himself up, he pushed down his thoughts, cocking his head to the side. “Nah, sveethott, Hy em a monster,” he drawled, shrugging one shoulder as he released Maxim's hands. Without another word, he flopped onto his side, rolling so that his back was to the boy, pulling his tousled blanket back up to his shoulders. There wasn't really enough room on the bed for two people, but Dimo was feeling certain that wouldn't be a problem.
Maxim didn't get up to leave immediately, though. He laid where he'd been left, still squirming as if Dimo hadn't moved at all. The Jaeger didn't understand it, but he shrugged it off mentally, ignoring it as best he could in favor of sleep. He was just about to drift off when Maxim abruptly sat up, peering over his shoulder uncertainly.
“Does this mean I can stay?” he asked, voice soft but still loud enough to jolt Dimo out of his near slumber.
He fought back the urge to grab his pillow, pin the boy to the bed, and smother him to death.
“Yez,” he growled, feeling Maxim flinch behind him with no small amount of satisfaction. “Hiff hyu iz hokay vit sharink a bed vit a disgostink monster like me, den hyu ken do vhateffer hyu dem vell pleaze. Chust shut op und lemme schleep.”
There was a moment of sweet, blissful silence.
“You're not that bad...”
That was it, he was done resisting his destructive urges.
Whipping around, he pounced on top of the blond, hands going around his delicate little neck as he let out a yelp of surprise. It was the last he would make as Dimo pushed his thumbs down on his trachea, leaning in close for their noses to brush, crooked teeth fully bared.
“Hiff hyu do not schtop tokkink, Hy vill shred hyu vispy leedle short, take my belt und bind hyu hends und feet, den tek my uzed unmentionables und shoff dem in hyu pritty leedle mout', gag hyu, und leaf hyu on de floor like dot until mornink, vhen Hy haff had my schleep, und haff de time und energy to be spendink on playink vit hyu to my black hott's content,” he snarled, then pushed his face even closer, raising his voice, “Und Hy play rough, sveethott, understand?”
Maxim let out a strangled little gasp, then nodded, blue eyes wide, hands clasped onto Dimo's wrists.
“Thenk hyu.” And then Dimo rolled onto his side with a tired whumph, heaving out one last sigh. Maxim coughed once, twice, then curled into a ball facing the opposite way, back pressed up against Dimo's, and nothing more was said.
Sometime during the night, Dimo woke up again. The boy managed to wedge himself between Dimo and the wall, bowling him onto his back only to sprawl over his chest. He didn't open his eyes right away, Maxim didn't intentionally wake him up. He was just breathing hard, occasionally making little gulping noises as his body shook, and at first Dimo wondered if he was jerking it on top of him. But no, Maxim's legs were wrapped around one of his, and his hands flexed sporadically against his shoulders, half clinging, half clawing. When Maxim shifted, it brought his attention to his chest, to a wet spot just about where the boy's face rested.
Crying, then. Or at least, trying hard not to.
Sighing, Dimo wrapped his arms around the shuddering blond, rolled over so he was half-pinning the boy to the bed, yawned, buried his face in his soft, sweet smelling hair, and went back to sleep.
The next morning, he awoke to Maxim sitting at the washbasin and handsized mirror Dimo quite frankly tended forget he had, brushing his hair. He was pretty sure that their entire purpose was simply to be the sort of things you found in a typical bedroom, only to sit forgotten in a corner because he was a monster and he didn't care about things like shaving or sprucing up. He was sitting up, leaning forward with his chin in his hands, trying to think if he'd actually ever put them to use before, when Maxim caught his eye in the mirror and spoke up.
“You know, I was wondering how you could stand using a mirror this tiny when it occurred to me, given the perpetual amount of stubble you sport, you've never actually used it, have you?”
Dimo shrugged, scratching the side of his nose with an absent sort of smirk. “Dunno. Neffer seemed right to mes vit perfection, hyu know?”
Maxim scoffed, muttering an “oh really” as he turned back to his reflection. He ran the brush through his hair a few more times before turning back to Dimo, waggling the brush at him scoldingly. “I'll have you know, perfection isn't something you can just be, it takes time and effort. Time and effort and vast amounts of suffering that you can't even begin to imagine.”
His smirk growing a bit more focused, Dimo flicked his eyes over to the basket at Maxim's feet, an eyebrow arched skeptically. It contained more oils and potions and whatnot than Dimo could name or figure out uses for, but he'd watched Maxim pick out every one at the apothecary, and then he grudgingly shelled out enough of his personal allowance for the boy to purchase them. “Ho, Hy ain't sure ov dot. Hy tink my vallet suffered plenty, und for vhat, Hy dunno. Hy don' need none ov dot schtuff, und Hy'm prettier den hyu.”
Maxim's brush promptly clunked him square on the face.
“You look like a shaggy dog that's been rolling in mud puddles, and the only effort that's been made to get him clean is that the dirty dishwater was dumped on his head!”
“Whuff,” he agreed, grinning wide enough to show all of his gnarly teeth, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. If Maxim thought he was insulting him by calling him a dog, then he had another thing coming. Everyone knew wolfhounds were popular, handsome creatures.
In return, Maxim sighed, lips pursing and eyes going hard. “Give me back my brush.”
Clamping his teeth around the handle of the brush, Dimo moved forward, prowling to the foot of the bed on all fours. He didn't mind playing dog if it meant pissing off Maxim, and by the way the blond's eye twitched, it sure was doing a good job of it.
“God, don't do that, you're going to put teeth marks in it! That's real gold, you know!” Maxim groused, scowling fiercely as he snatched at the brush. But Dimo wasn't about to let him have so easily, and just as the blond's fingers came in range, he dropped to the bed, rolling onto his back with his hands and feet in the air. Whuffing around the brush handle, he waggled his eyebrows again, shimmying his lower half in lieu of a tail.
“Oh my god, I can't-” Maxim huffed, staring at the Jaeger with one corner of his lips curled in a sneer, getting up and grabbing Dimo's chin with one hand, squeezing hard to force it to open so he could grab his brush. “I mean seriously, how old are you, five?”
“Sixty fife, but who'z countink?”
Maxim whapped him with the brush. “Last time I asked, you said sixty two.”
Dimo whapped him back, popping his fist lightly against the blond's chin. “Hey, Hy asked who'z countink! Sixty iz az far az Hy got.”
That got him a raised eyebrow, Maxim's arms folding over his chest. “Oh? And when was it that you stopped counting?”
Shrugging, Dimo rolled himself right off the bed, snatching his hat off the bedpost and moving over to examine the basket of toiletries at Maxim's side. If he knew that, then he'd know the correct answer to how old he was. Technically, he COULD give Maxim the year he was born and let him figure it out from there, but that would require him remembering exactly when it was. It wasn't that he didn't know, he just didn't care to think on it. What was in the basket was much more interesting. Some of it looked, and smelled, delicious.
“Deed hyu bring all dis vit hyu last night?” he asked, looking up at the blond from beneath the brim of his hat, eyebrow arched as he poked at the bottles and tins.
“Yes,” Maxim said, waving him off with the brush. He grabbed a tin of shaving cream from the basket, and Dimo just stared at him, wondering exactly WHAT the boy had to shave as he whisked up the lather. It wasn't like he had a single piece of body hair on him, which, granted, could be chalked up to shaving, but he didn't exactly have any STUBBLE either.
The mystery was solved when Maxim pulled his leg up, settled his foot on the stool, and lovingly applied the cream to his calf. Slapping his palm to his face, Dimo rolled his eyes and turned away, picking his discarded clothes up from the floor. Oh no- He didn't-
“Hyu brought hyu clothes in here too?” Dimo asked, voice rising incredulously, staring at the neatly folded pile of clothes on the chair next to the door. There was an awful lot of gold fabric in that pile.
Glancing up from his leg, Maxim just shrugged, pulling the razor away and dipping it in the wash basin. When did that have water in it? Just how much did Maxim bring into his room before he woke up? Dimo let his clothes fall to back the floor in a heap and checked his wardrobe, expecting it to be filled with Maxim's clothing. Thankfully, the only thing inside of it was still just his good uniform.
Now to check under the bed.
“Oh, relax, I only brought the things I'd need today,” Maxim huffed as Dimo knelt down, bum waving in the air as he peered under his bed. “I didn't want to walk all the way back to the human barracks in just my nightshirt, did I? YOU pretty much confirmed my fears about what would happen if I tried that.”
Dimo felt the pointed stare and jerked his head around to pout at the boy, only to find him shaving his legs once more. He grumbled a little to himself, muttering, “Hy deedn't-”
“No, you didn't,” Maxim interrupted without looking up. “You were just doing it to torment me, and I know that. But that doesn't mean that I enjoy it.”
Dimo grunted. “Pipple been assumink a lot ov tings 'bout me lately on account ov de tings Hy don' do. Iz annoyink.”
Now Maxim looked up, peeking up over the curve of his thigh with a cheeky smile on his face. “Then maybe you ought to start doing things, hm?”
Growling, Dimo fished a pair of those used unmentionables he'd mentioned the night before from beneath the bed, and flung them at Maxim, who cackled as they bounced off his shoulder.
Dimo was startled from his slumber by a sudden weight dropping onto his side. Instinctively, his hand went for the knives he kept under his pillow, but he stopped short just as his fingers curled around the hilts. The scent of roses – Maxim's stupid fancy soap, specifically – wafted into his nose, and he immediately relaxed, sighing as he shifted, rolling onto his back and slinging an arm around the boy's shoulders as Maxim shifted with him, curling up against his side with his face pressed into his chest.
“Don' hyu know iz dangerous to vake a schleepink Jaeger?” he chided, scowling at the bowed crown of Maxim's head.
“Is not,” the boy replied, his tone dismissive, if not muffled by Dimo's chest. “I'm perfectly fine, see?”
“Yah, cuz hyu stink,” Dimo snorted, rolling his eyes though he meant it. If Maxim didn't use such a distinct smelling soap, the Jaeger could have killed him out of reflex. It was probably the only time smelling like a girl saved a life.
“I don't stink, I smell beautiful,” he huffed, hunching his shoulders up more, fingers curling in Dimo's chest hair. “YOU stink, though. When is the last time you took a bath?”
Growling a bit, Dimo grumpily raised his hand, thumping Maxim upside the head in annoyance. He didn't have the patience for silly banter in the middle of the night. “Chust tell me vhat hyu vant zo Hy ken go beck to schleep,” he groused, maybe a bit more roughly than he needed to.
No immediate answer seemed forth-coming. For a long moment, Maxim simply lay there, head pillowed on the Jaeger's chest, quiet and unusually subdued. It was just a long enough time for Dimo to start regretting his gruffness, and he wondered if it was intentional, or if the boy really wasn't comfortable with answering.
Then he got a tiny little mumble he couldn't quite make out.
It seemed intentional or not, something was on the boy's mind.
“Gonna hafta schpeak op, sveethott,” he drawled, giving Maxim a little squeeze to show he wasn't being unkind.
Maxim made a disgruntled little noise, pressing his face more into Dimo, his fingers tickling as they curled into fists. Still, he didn't say anything particularly coherent, and the Jaeger wasn't going to let him get away with that.
“Hyu know, Hy em gonna chust t'row hyu out und go beck to schleep hiff hyu ken't chust schpit it out.”
“I had a nightmare!” Maxim suddenly shouted, his whole body going tense at the declaration. “I had a nightmare and I didn't want to be alone, okay? So just... just leave me alone.”
Well, that just brought up all kinds of questions, the least of which was why a sixteen year old boy, who otherwise refused to show any sign of weakness, was doing running to his room. “So vhy iz hyu-”
“Do you really think I'm going to walk all the way to Oggie's house, where he's going to be in bed. With his WIFE?” Maxim deadpanned, finally raising his head to give Dimo a dirty look. He had to laugh a little bit to himself. “Because that's really a long way to go, only to be thrown out by an angry lady with a rolling pin made out of stone, you know. You are not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination.”
Okay, that was a fair point. “But vhat's got hyu zo vurked op hyu gotta come runnin' for comfort?”
“Do I have to talk about it?” Maxim whined, his brow furrowing and lips turning down into a pout. Dimo shrugged in response, hands sliding up the boy's back to toy with his hair. He supposed he didn't need to know, he thought as he absently twirled his fingers through silky gold strands. The boy looked up at him, confusion on his face, and a smirk flickered across Dimo's face. He liked catching the unflappable blond off guard like that. Maxim pursed his lips and huffed in response, so Dimo rolled them over, pinning Maxim to the bed as the blond tensed up, letting out a mewl of protest, his hands pushing against the Jaeger's chest.
“Now, don' be like dot, sveethott,” he crooned, pressing his forehead against Maxim's with a roguish grin, grabbing the boy's hands and yanking them over his head. “Hiff hyu don' vanna tell me, hyu don' gotta, but hyu ain't stayin' here for free. Hyu gotta giff me ZUM reason to let hyu schleep in my bed. ”
“You have GOT to be kidding me!” Maxim yelped, staring at Dimo like he'd grown another head, one corner of his lip curled up in not sure if want.
Humming thoughtfully, Dimo let his eyes rake over the nubile form beneath him as Maxim squirmed uncomfortably, waggling his eyebrows rakishly. All the blond wore was a long shirt, but it wasn't long enough to reach his knees, leaving the smooth, milky expanse of his thighs exposed, and it rode up even more with every little thrash of his body. If his hands weren't occupied, it would have been so easy to give into the temptation run them along the soft skin, pushing the fabric slowly up, revealing more of that beautiful skin inch by inch. Of course, the blond was getting more and more agitated the more he stared, so maybe he wouldn't have to use his hands to get a little peek.
Just as Maxim let out a little snarl of “You're disgusting,” he jerked himself out of his thoughts, feeling a little confused and disgusted, himself. Just what did he think he'd find when he reached the point where the boy's met? Not a juicy little cunt, that was for sure.
Pushing himself up, he pushed down his thoughts, cocking his head to the side. “Nah, sveethott, Hy em a monster,” he drawled, shrugging one shoulder as he released Maxim's hands. Without another word, he flopped onto his side, rolling so that his back was to the boy, pulling his tousled blanket back up to his shoulders. There wasn't really enough room on the bed for two people, but Dimo was feeling certain that wouldn't be a problem.
Maxim didn't get up to leave immediately, though. He laid where he'd been left, still squirming as if Dimo hadn't moved at all. The Jaeger didn't understand it, but he shrugged it off mentally, ignoring it as best he could in favor of sleep. He was just about to drift off when Maxim abruptly sat up, peering over his shoulder uncertainly.
“Does this mean I can stay?” he asked, voice soft but still loud enough to jolt Dimo out of his near slumber.
He fought back the urge to grab his pillow, pin the boy to the bed, and smother him to death.
“Yez,” he growled, feeling Maxim flinch behind him with no small amount of satisfaction. “Hiff hyu iz hokay vit sharink a bed vit a disgostink monster like me, den hyu ken do vhateffer hyu dem vell pleaze. Chust shut op und lemme schleep.”
There was a moment of sweet, blissful silence.
“You're not that bad...”
That was it, he was done resisting his destructive urges.
Whipping around, he pounced on top of the blond, hands going around his delicate little neck as he let out a yelp of surprise. It was the last he would make as Dimo pushed his thumbs down on his trachea, leaning in close for their noses to brush, crooked teeth fully bared.
“Hiff hyu do not schtop tokkink, Hy vill shred hyu vispy leedle short, take my belt und bind hyu hends und feet, den tek my uzed unmentionables und shoff dem in hyu pritty leedle mout', gag hyu, und leaf hyu on de floor like dot until mornink, vhen Hy haff had my schleep, und haff de time und energy to be spendink on playink vit hyu to my black hott's content,” he snarled, then pushed his face even closer, raising his voice, “Und Hy play rough, sveethott, understand?”
Maxim let out a strangled little gasp, then nodded, blue eyes wide, hands clasped onto Dimo's wrists.
“Thenk hyu.” And then Dimo rolled onto his side with a tired whumph, heaving out one last sigh. Maxim coughed once, twice, then curled into a ball facing the opposite way, back pressed up against Dimo's, and nothing more was said.
Sometime during the night, Dimo woke up again. The boy managed to wedge himself between Dimo and the wall, bowling him onto his back only to sprawl over his chest. He didn't open his eyes right away, Maxim didn't intentionally wake him up. He was just breathing hard, occasionally making little gulping noises as his body shook, and at first Dimo wondered if he was jerking it on top of him. But no, Maxim's legs were wrapped around one of his, and his hands flexed sporadically against his shoulders, half clinging, half clawing. When Maxim shifted, it brought his attention to his chest, to a wet spot just about where the boy's face rested.
Crying, then. Or at least, trying hard not to.
Sighing, Dimo wrapped his arms around the shuddering blond, rolled over so he was half-pinning the boy to the bed, yawned, buried his face in his soft, sweet smelling hair, and went back to sleep.
The next morning, he awoke to Maxim sitting at the washbasin and handsized mirror Dimo quite frankly tended forget he had, brushing his hair. He was pretty sure that their entire purpose was simply to be the sort of things you found in a typical bedroom, only to sit forgotten in a corner because he was a monster and he didn't care about things like shaving or sprucing up. He was sitting up, leaning forward with his chin in his hands, trying to think if he'd actually ever put them to use before, when Maxim caught his eye in the mirror and spoke up.
“You know, I was wondering how you could stand using a mirror this tiny when it occurred to me, given the perpetual amount of stubble you sport, you've never actually used it, have you?”
Dimo shrugged, scratching the side of his nose with an absent sort of smirk. “Dunno. Neffer seemed right to mes vit perfection, hyu know?”
Maxim scoffed, muttering an “oh really” as he turned back to his reflection. He ran the brush through his hair a few more times before turning back to Dimo, waggling the brush at him scoldingly. “I'll have you know, perfection isn't something you can just be, it takes time and effort. Time and effort and vast amounts of suffering that you can't even begin to imagine.”
His smirk growing a bit more focused, Dimo flicked his eyes over to the basket at Maxim's feet, an eyebrow arched skeptically. It contained more oils and potions and whatnot than Dimo could name or figure out uses for, but he'd watched Maxim pick out every one at the apothecary, and then he grudgingly shelled out enough of his personal allowance for the boy to purchase them. “Ho, Hy ain't sure ov dot. Hy tink my vallet suffered plenty, und for vhat, Hy dunno. Hy don' need none ov dot schtuff, und Hy'm prettier den hyu.”
Maxim's brush promptly clunked him square on the face.
“You look like a shaggy dog that's been rolling in mud puddles, and the only effort that's been made to get him clean is that the dirty dishwater was dumped on his head!”
“Whuff,” he agreed, grinning wide enough to show all of his gnarly teeth, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. If Maxim thought he was insulting him by calling him a dog, then he had another thing coming. Everyone knew wolfhounds were popular, handsome creatures.
In return, Maxim sighed, lips pursing and eyes going hard. “Give me back my brush.”
Clamping his teeth around the handle of the brush, Dimo moved forward, prowling to the foot of the bed on all fours. He didn't mind playing dog if it meant pissing off Maxim, and by the way the blond's eye twitched, it sure was doing a good job of it.
“God, don't do that, you're going to put teeth marks in it! That's real gold, you know!” Maxim groused, scowling fiercely as he snatched at the brush. But Dimo wasn't about to let him have so easily, and just as the blond's fingers came in range, he dropped to the bed, rolling onto his back with his hands and feet in the air. Whuffing around the brush handle, he waggled his eyebrows again, shimmying his lower half in lieu of a tail.
“Oh my god, I can't-” Maxim huffed, staring at the Jaeger with one corner of his lips curled in a sneer, getting up and grabbing Dimo's chin with one hand, squeezing hard to force it to open so he could grab his brush. “I mean seriously, how old are you, five?”
“Sixty fife, but who'z countink?”
Maxim whapped him with the brush. “Last time I asked, you said sixty two.”
Dimo whapped him back, popping his fist lightly against the blond's chin. “Hey, Hy asked who'z countink! Sixty iz az far az Hy got.”
That got him a raised eyebrow, Maxim's arms folding over his chest. “Oh? And when was it that you stopped counting?”
Shrugging, Dimo rolled himself right off the bed, snatching his hat off the bedpost and moving over to examine the basket of toiletries at Maxim's side. If he knew that, then he'd know the correct answer to how old he was. Technically, he COULD give Maxim the year he was born and let him figure it out from there, but that would require him remembering exactly when it was. It wasn't that he didn't know, he just didn't care to think on it. What was in the basket was much more interesting. Some of it looked, and smelled, delicious.
“Deed hyu bring all dis vit hyu last night?” he asked, looking up at the blond from beneath the brim of his hat, eyebrow arched as he poked at the bottles and tins.
“Yes,” Maxim said, waving him off with the brush. He grabbed a tin of shaving cream from the basket, and Dimo just stared at him, wondering exactly WHAT the boy had to shave as he whisked up the lather. It wasn't like he had a single piece of body hair on him, which, granted, could be chalked up to shaving, but he didn't exactly have any STUBBLE either.
The mystery was solved when Maxim pulled his leg up, settled his foot on the stool, and lovingly applied the cream to his calf. Slapping his palm to his face, Dimo rolled his eyes and turned away, picking his discarded clothes up from the floor. Oh no- He didn't-
“Hyu brought hyu clothes in here too?” Dimo asked, voice rising incredulously, staring at the neatly folded pile of clothes on the chair next to the door. There was an awful lot of gold fabric in that pile.
Glancing up from his leg, Maxim just shrugged, pulling the razor away and dipping it in the wash basin. When did that have water in it? Just how much did Maxim bring into his room before he woke up? Dimo let his clothes fall to back the floor in a heap and checked his wardrobe, expecting it to be filled with Maxim's clothing. Thankfully, the only thing inside of it was still just his good uniform.
Now to check under the bed.
“Oh, relax, I only brought the things I'd need today,” Maxim huffed as Dimo knelt down, bum waving in the air as he peered under his bed. “I didn't want to walk all the way back to the human barracks in just my nightshirt, did I? YOU pretty much confirmed my fears about what would happen if I tried that.”
Dimo felt the pointed stare and jerked his head around to pout at the boy, only to find him shaving his legs once more. He grumbled a little to himself, muttering, “Hy deedn't-”
“No, you didn't,” Maxim interrupted without looking up. “You were just doing it to torment me, and I know that. But that doesn't mean that I enjoy it.”
Dimo grunted. “Pipple been assumink a lot ov tings 'bout me lately on account ov de tings Hy don' do. Iz annoyink.”
Now Maxim looked up, peeking up over the curve of his thigh with a cheeky smile on his face. “Then maybe you ought to start doing things, hm?”
Growling, Dimo fished a pair of those used unmentionables he'd mentioned the night before from beneath the bed, and flung them at Maxim, who cackled as they bounced off his shoulder.
